Friday, June 18, 2010

As a mother I have a lot of good intentions. Activities & Crafts we are going to do. Adventures we are going to go on. Chores that need to be assigned. But, we get busy with life and the mundane often takes over.

When I recently had the opportunity to visit some of my dear blogging friends, Stef and Stacey we talked about Intentional Parenting vs Reactive Parenting. It struck a nerve with me and I have been thinking about it often since that conversation.

My thoughts are when am I going to follow through on my good intentions?

We have a lot of teachable moments and I try to use them as times to work on behaviors or teach my girls a life lesson. But, what would happen if I was focusing on teaching them before I was correcting them?

One of the things that we have talked about as a family, but never followed through with is family rules. I found a great post from Meghan from The Tuckers Take Tennessee all about creating Family Rules.

1 on 1 time with each child is another thing at the top of my good intentions list. This happens on occasion, but not intentionally everyday. I really want to create a quiet time with each of my girls. I am really excited about Tommy Nelson's God's Promises for Girlsas a starting point for my youngest daughter and Dannah Gresh's Secret Keeper Girl for my older two girls.

This is just two things that we are going to work on as a family. There are so many more things that we want to accomplish with our girls. I look forward to sharing them with you as we learn and grow.

Today I am linking up with Gather Inspirit as they focus on Raising your Children in Faith. How are you focusing on teaching your children to love the Lord?

If you have little ones in your house, head over to Unforgettable Childhood and leave a comment to win a Sneaky 3D Puzzle from Patch Products. My daughters love it and I would love to send one to you!

Intentional parenting...still striving for that. Still a bit too reactionary! We are working on quiet times and reading with the kids too. This week has been great 1 on 1 time with my son. We've had lots of time to talk.

Life happens so fast doesn't it? Intentional parenting is the only way I know to slow it down a bit. One thing I am doing this summer is trying to focus on a different girl each day. Monday - Abby because it is always a hard day for her, Tuesday Emma - at least one focused time during the day with her. Not that I am not parenting or interacting with all of them, but in the back of my mind, "Monday is Abby" - look for Abby today. Give her a little bit more of Mommy today" ,etc.

Hey my sweet friend! I so agree, both parents need to be taking one on one time with our kids. I've had my oldest say to me "it's been so long since Dad and I have spent alone time together." It means so much to them! Love the intentional word! :)

There is a lot of sense in parenting intentionally, but what I worry about is that it is one of those things that I try and then fail at! For example, I printed off kids chore charts which worked for a while then fell by the wayside. Mums have enough pressure on ourselves and to just get through the day sometimes with small kids is hard enough without feeling a failure. We need to remember God's grace and that he knows our hearts as parents and prayer for our kids is as powerful as anything. Also OUR daily example to them.Love Collette xxx